The present invention relates generally to a system and method for displaying images, and more particularly to a system and method for gamut mapping out-of-gamut signals. When displaying an image for viewing purposes, it may be desirable to utilize as large a color gamut as possible. In general, the use of a large color gamut allows for a more accurate rendering of the image since a larger number of colors may be available for use in displaying the image. However, a display system may have a fixed color gamut dependent on an illumination system used in the display system. For example, display systems using laser light sources, light emitting diodes, electric arc lamps, and so forth, may have fixed color gamuts based on the illumination system. The attempted display of an image using a color gamut that may be larger than the color gamut of the display system may result in the display system attempting to display colors with negative color values. For example, in a YCbCr color space, some non-negative RGB YCbCr values may correspond to negative RGB values in an alternative RGB color space. Thus, in display systems not capable of displaying colors with negative RGB color values, an inaccurate rendering of the color and image may be the result. This may potentially result in the image having a worse appearance than if a smaller color gamut was initially used to display the image.
Another technique commonly used to increase image quality of images displayed by a display system is to boost color saturation. Boosting color saturation may entail the gaining of one or more color components of a signal in an image being displayed by the display system. Boosting color saturation may increase the image quality by increasing the colorfulness of the image. However, like negative color values, the use of color saturation boosting may result in color values exceeding color values displayable by a display system, and may result in color value clipping and the introduction of color artifacts and noise, which may negatively impact image quality.